Murder Trial in Boy’s Death Stirs Up Controversy in Small NY Town

Hillary was born in Jamaica and moved to the U.S. as a teenager. He served in the Army and was honorably discharged in the 1990s.

He attended St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York, where he played soccer all four years. He was a captain, leading the team in 1999 to the program’s first national championship. The team was also the first in NCAA Division III history to go undefeated and untied en route to the championship.

After graduating in 2000, he worked as a math teacher and as a college soccer coach.

He became Clarkson University's head soccer coach in 2009. While working at Clarkson, Hillary lived with his girlfriend, Stacia, and their three children.

St. Lawrence University soccer coach Robert Durocher, a friend of Hillary's who coached him on the national championship team, has described Hillary as a big family guy who was firm with his kids but fair.

"That's what made him such a great captain of the national championship team in 1999," Durocher said in a sworn statement to police.

After Hillary and Cyrus began dating in late 2010, Hillary and his teenage daughter, Shanna Kay, moved into Cyrus' two-bedroom apartment, where she lived with her two sons. In January 2011, the new family of five — Hillary, Cyrus, Shanna Kay, Garrett and Aaron — moved to a four-bedroom house in Potsdam.

But for fifth-grader Garrett, the transition wasn't seamless, according to his mother.

Garrett was "well-liked by everyone," his fifth-grade teacher, Lynn Tharrett, said in a sworn statement, adding that he was "funny and the class clown but very respectful." But he struggled in school, Cyrus told police, so she asked Hillary for his opinion, since he used to teach fifth-grade math: "Nick was going to help me come up with a structured study regimen for Garrett to get back on track," she said.

"Garrett didn't talk to me about personal issues," said Tharrett, "but he did tell me at least twice he did not like his mother’s boyfriend, Nick Hillary."

Tharrett said she met Hillary at a parent-teacher conference. "He was polite when asking me questions, but I felt he was questioning my teaching methods," she said.

Cyrus said in a statement to police that she also noticed tension between her then-boyfriend and oldest son.

"Garrett had told me that Nick was very strict, and I have seen that," she explained. "Nick did not let Garrett or his younger kids watch TV during the school week and wanted them to do their homework.

"Garrett did not like Nick," Cyrus said. "Garrett just didn't like the discipline that Nick brought to our family."

Collins, the father of Garrett’s younger brother, said in his statement that "Garrett always complained" about Hillary's rules, while Hillary "had problems with Garrett's grades and Garrett's lack of respect" for him. "Garrett asked all the time if he could move in with me because he hated Nick," Collins said.

Eventually problems developed between Cyrus and Hillary because of their different parenting techniques, said Cyrus.

In a statement, Cyrus told police Hillary expected her to change her parenting to be more like his, which she described as "stricter." For example, she said, Hillary wouldn’t let his kids watch TV during the week, but she felt it was fine as long as everyone had finished homework.

"Nick would sit me down almost on a weekly basis, and he would tell me everything that was wrong with my kids and my parenting," she said. "He was a very structured person, and he would tell me about how I have to have a plan for this and that and everything had to be planned out. Nick was very meticulous. He had everything on planner and had his days planned out all the time. I am not like that, so that caused more stress in the house and in our relationship."

ncG1vNJzZmiZkpi7psPSZ56oZpOkunChsmibnp2gmba3sY6mrKuclad6tb7ImqNmmp%2BuwG6wxJqroWWjqbazv4ycpqesoqTDpr7SsmSspZGhuW7AzrClZmxhboF2g5Vt